So then the central question becomes, given the chance to go back to her old life, would Samantha do so?
Have women become so consumed with work that they’ve forgotten about what’s really important? Which is
more fulfilling, a career, or caring for a family? While Samantha claims she is only one woman and is not
speaking for anyone other than herself, the same can’t be said of Kinsella. She is making a statement here,
whether she intends to be or not.
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First off, Kinsella has written yet another extremely fun read, full of humor and suspense. She is a master at
letting her characters make mistake after mistake, while the reader, in sweet agony, is left wondering how it
will all work out. Still, as a pseudo-career woman myself, I could not help but be just a little offended by the
book. It seems that all the characters in The Undomestic Goddess who have opted for career over family are
shallow, competitive, and mean. All the characters who Samantha then meets in her new life are sincere,
kind, and if they have any flaws at all, they are quirky, loveable flaws.
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Real life is rarely so black and white. And while one could easily dismiss this book as a beach-read, not meant
to make any sort of controversy, again, it’s not that simple. Many, many women struggle to find a balance
between cooking, cleaning and caring for their loved ones while pursuing a career that is intellectually
fulfilling. To create a portrait that so obviously labels one as bad and the other as good minimizes that
struggle. Would it have been so hard to add in some complexities to all the characters? Perhaps then
Samantha’s struggle would have mirrored more closely the one which thousands of real women deal with
everyday.
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Still, The Undomestic Goddess is definitely worth reading, especially if you are a Kinsella fan. You’ll wind up
caring what happens to Samantha, because she is a well-developed character who comes to realize that life
rarely offers up easy answers. Unfortunately, she is the only character who does so.
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